Summary

Housing is fundamental to every part of a child's development. It is something most of us take for granted.

Children need a home to feel safe, keep warm and stay healthy. Bad housing wrecks their lives, makes them sick, unhappy and under-achieve at school.

Britain is being pulled in two directions. While many people benefit from soaring house prices, the dark side of the boom spreads unnoticed.

Children are the hidden victims of Britain's growing housing crisis - living in damp, cold, infested housing or on estates that are shamefully neglected and ridden with fear and fifth. Or they are literally homeless - not on the streets but in emergency housing waiting for somewhere permanent to live.